Imposter driver eyed in Chelsea
POLICE ARE investigating a woman’s claims that she was raped by a man she may have mistaken for a Lyft driver, officials said Thursday.
The 22-year-old Manhattan woman told police she was on W. 17th St. in Chelsea at about 2 a.m. Wednesday when she ordered a ride on the Lyft app.
About a minute later, a man in an SUV pulled up and asked her if she wanted a ride.
“I’m your driver,” he told the woman, police sources said.
Although the motorist didn’t have any stickers or placards indicating he was affiliated with Lyft, or any other app-based livery service, the woman got into the back seat, cops said. The man drove her to E. 26th St. between Second and Third Aves. and pulled her into the front and raped her, police said.
He let the woman go and drove off. Cops said he remained at large Wednesday.
The woman went home and then took herself to New York University Hospital, where she reported the attack. Detectives from the Manhattan special victims squad are investigating.
An email to Lyft seeking comment was not immediately answered.
On May 15, a 24-year-old woman who used the Uber app to order a cab in the East Village stepped into the wrong car and was robbed by an opportunistic motorist who threatened to rape and shoot her, police said.